Chapter 5 - Whispers in the VIP Suite
The admission hung in the air like poison gas.
Even Evelyn flinched, her jaw tightening as she realized Victoria had crossed a line that money couldn't immediately erase.
"Victoria, shut your mouth," Evelyn hissed through her teeth.
"No, Mother! I'm sick of pretending!" Victoria yelled, her face flushing crimson as she backed toward the grand fireplace. "Why should she get everything? She’s been in Julian's life for fourteen months! Fourteen months, and she gets the keys to the entire empire, while I’ve worked eighty hours a week at the maritime logistics firm for ten years!"
Julian looked at his sister with genuine bewilderment mixed with disgust. "What the hell are you talking about, Victoria? Clara isn't getting the company. You're the COO. You have your own forty-percent stake in logistics."
"You really don't know, do you?" Victoria laughed, a harsh, hysterical sound that grated on the ears. She pointed a trembling finger at Clara, then turned to her mother. "Tell him, Mother. Tell your golden boy what Father did before he blew his brains out in the Hamptons."
Julian swung his gaze toward Evelyn. The matriarch looked away, refusing to meet her son’s eyes.
"Mother?" Julian demanded. The command in his voice rattled the crystal glasses on the side table. "Tell me what?"
Clara watched Evelyn’s posture crumble slightly. For the first time, the impenetrable Sterling armor showed a fatal crack.
"Your father’s will contained a secret codicil," Evelyn murmured, her tone suddenly exhausted. "It was drafted four days before his death. It was sealed with his personal attorney, Arthur Vance."
Clara’s heart skipped a beat. *Vance.*
"Arthur Vance was my uncle," Clara whispered, the pieces beginning to slam together in her mind like falling dominoes. "The uncle who raised me after my parents died in that car crash."
"Your uncle was a thief and a blackmailer!" Victoria shrieked. "Father had an offshore account—six hundred million dollars hidden from the SEC. Arthur Vance found out about it during the audit. Instead of turning Father in, Vance blackmailed him into setting up an irrevocable trust."
Julian turned back to his sister, his brow furrowed. "What did the trust say?"
"The trust dictates that sixty percent of the Sterling core assets—the entire controlling interest of the empire—cannot remain with anyone bearing the Sterling bloodline if the company faces a criminal indictment," Victoria spat out, every word dripping with bitter jealousy. "Unless... unless Julian marries a Vance."
The room seemed to tilt.
Clara stared at Julian. The room spun around her. Julian looked back at her, his face pale, shock written into every line of his features.
"I didn't know," Clara said immediately, her voice trembling. "Julian, I swear to God, I didn't know anything about this. My uncle died three years ago. He never told me about a trust. He never told me about your father!"
"Oh, please! Save the naive orphan act!" Victoria screamed. "Arthur Vance groomed you! He positioned you at that charity gala in Paris where you 'accidentally' spilled red wine on Julian's tuxedo! You hunted him down! And the moment you say 'I do,' the sixty-percent stake transfers to a joint marital trust. If you die *before* the marriage is officially solemnized, the trust dissolves, and the entire fortune reverts to me and Mother!"
"And the ceremony wasn't finished," Clara realized, a cold wave of dread washing over her. "The rings... we hadn't exchanged the rings yet."
May you like
Victoria grinned, a terrifying, empty smile. "The legal window expires at midnight tonight. The 72-hour clause in Father’s trust stated the marriage had to be finalized by the seventh anniversary of the fund's creation. That’s midnight. If Julian isn't married to you by 11:59 PM, the Vance trust is void forever. You lose. And I take everything."
***
